Hello lovelies, it's been awhile! I've been a brand ambassador for Catherine Pooler Designs for several years now and at the first of the year, I joined the Social Media Design Team. I adore CPD products and especially their inks! I have sooooo many! As many of you know, I battled breast cancer last summer and had a mastectomy. My mom and sister are survivors as well, although my mom passed away almost 6 years ago due to other health issues.
Since my surgery, my battle is more with the post-cancer meds that I have to take for the next 5 years. The side effects are numerous and include muscle/joint pain, extreme fatigue and severe mood swings, to name a few. In addition, on January 3rd of this year, my dad who is 85 years old had a stroke which affected his speech. He was diagnosed with apraxia and aphasia post-stroke and although he is mobile and can do some things for himself, my siblings and I made the decision to bring him home to care for him, after his hospitalization and rehab.
I'm not going to lie, it's been extremely challenging for all of us, as we take turns caring for him, taking him to his numerous doctor appointments, going on grocery runs, cooking, etc. Communication on his end frustrates him significantly. He's getting, OT, PT and speech therapy but can't talk, although occasionally, a random word or two will come out when he's not trying. He is also trying to learn to write again and currently struggles with that as well, as his letters get mixed up and thoughts jumbled up in his head.
As you can imagine, I've cut back on my creative commitments and blogging, although I have kept up my project commitments to Catherine Pooler. I do other affiliate promotion when I'm able as well, as that is much easier and less time consuming. So here we are. My first blog post in months, and only because I actually have a few free moments where I'm not totally exhausted and drained beyond belief, haha! I'm still working a full time job too!
Today, the Petals and Purrs Collection is live at Catherine Pooler. My first two cards below feature this collection, but I'm also sharing some other favorite projects that I shared on social media over the last couple months with other CPD new releases. Thanks so much for popping in and listening to me ramble!
(FTC Disclosure: as an affiliate for various companies in the craft industry, I will receive a small commission for purchases made through my convenient affiliate links, at no additional cost to you.)
My intention was to create a one layer card and make some rainbow kittens with
Purr-fect Pals stamp set. One thing led to another, and I ended up making fairy wings, haha! I blame Tiktok, after watching way too many videos of pet owners dressing up their pets in costumes and butterfly wings! Have you seen the golden retriever with the light up wings????!!! Absolutely precious!
One thing you should know about me is, if I get an idea, there is no veering from it. I will seek a conclusion and commit to THE END!
I decided to place my cat stamp on an acrylic block and dab one ink color at a time randomly, then spritz with water before stamping. I would also blot certain areas of my wet ink with a paper towel as needed, to not create too much overlap with other ink colors.
Ink colors:
Tiara, Sweetheart, Mardi Gras, Black Jack
The coordinating outline stamp was done at the end using Black Jack. If there were any splotchy areas missing color, I went in with a wet paintbrush and spritzed ink to touch it up.
I searched through my CPD stamp sets to see if I could find anything that would work for wings and found the perfect thing in the Hops and Peeps stamp set, one of my favorite sets for Spring. Those baby chick "paws" at the bottom of the photo below were perfect. I could have used butterfly wings, but I was on a time crunch and didn't want to fool with too much masking.
To create my wings, I first stamped on my colored cats using Black Jack ink. I did mask a little bit with tape in some sections. Next, I used the "paws" stamps to stamp 6 images on vellum with the Sweetheart ink, then sprinkled with Wow Sparkles in
Cotton Candy and heat set it with a craft heat tool.
Then I took the new Pixie Dust Shimmer, shook the bootle, then placed a few drops on my craft mat, spritzed with a touch of water and grabbed a wet paintbrush to pain the shimmer on my vellum "wings".
I gently heat set the wings, then fussy cut them and placed a small piece of trimmed adhesive strips at the base of the wing to adhere to my cats. This was so fun to do! Did I mention March is National Craft Month?!
Above, is another card I made earlier this week that features these CPD products:
Pixie Dust & Glitz Shimmers
Ink Pads - Sweetheart, Tiara, Black Jack
More Sentiment Banner Dies
Totally Bloomin' Patterned Paper
Flirty Blooms Layered Stencils
Purr-fect Pals Stamp & Die Set
Around The Loop Nested Dies
Party Red & Party Yellow Enamel Dots
Party Mix Cardstock, White Cardstock
Dots and Scallops Dies
Party Mix cardstock
Farm Fresh Stamp/die set
CPD inks - Orange Twist, Cargo
Simple Strips Dies
Lime Rickey Shimmer
White Cardstock
Farm Fresh Patterned Paper
I also died some white twine from my stash for the carrot topper "greens", using the Lime Rickey Shimmer.
The cards above featured positive and negative die cuts using January's release in celebration of
colored cardstock arriving to the shop! The papers I used were from the Party Mix Cardstock Collection. I also used the Simple Strips Dies and Scripted Sentiment Trio Word Dies. Do you follow me on Instagram? I talked about creating this project,
here.
The project above was also made with the Party Mix Cardstock Collection, as well as the Flip-a-Color Combo Dies for swatching. Read my Instagram post,
here.
The projects above and below also feature the From the Farm Collection and new shimmers. You can view additional photos on my Instagram
here, as well as the torn paper technique that I used for the ink blended sky above.
Thanks so much for popping in, I'm already tuckered out, haha! I'll bet you are too, if you stuck with me this long! I hope you have a great week. If you'd like to shop for any of the products used on these projects, tap
here to visit the CPD website. Thank you and blessings to you all!
Terri
#wavingmywand #catherinepoolerdesigns #catherinepoolerink #fromthefarm #coloredcardstock #partymix #petalsandpurrs #cardmaking #stamping #crafting #nationalcraftmonth #carrots #farmfresh #kittens #rainbowcats #catlovers #fairywings #shimmers #pixiedust #swatching
